$1,000,000 raised for koalas injured in Australian bushfires

An online fundraiser for koalas injured in Australian bushfires has received more donations than any other campaign on the country’s GoFundMe platform this year.

Hundreds of koalas are estimated to have died in blazes that have ravaged parts of eastern Australia for weeks.

Fire crews have been trying to rescue injured wildlife from the wreckage, with devastating pictures showing burnt and bloodied koalas in desperate need of water.

A crowdfunding page set up by Port Macquarie Koala Hospital to provide automatic water drinking stations for the bears asked for $25,000 (£13,000).

But within weeks donations soared past $1m (£520,000), making it the country’s second largest fundraising campaign since GoFundme was launched there in 2016.

More than 700 bushfire-related fundraisers were launched on the platform in the past 10 days, raising a combined total of more than £1m.

However, the wildlife charity’s ‘Help thirsty koalas devastated by recent fires’ drive has attracted the most attention, with generous donations from people all over the world raking in $1,260,180 (£665,709).

The blazes have so far killed six people, ravaged hundreds of homes and scorched about 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of land since October.

The koala hospital, about  four hours north Sydney, has rescued 31 koalas from the fires in recent weeks, and said it had been ‘overwhelmed by the kindness, good wishes and support from the Australian and international community’.

It plans to use the excess funds to deliver koala drinking stations to other parts of the state, purchase a water-carrying vehicle to replenish the stations, and to establish a koala breeding programme.

The extent of the blaze means large tracts of the tree-dwelling koala bears’ habitat has been destroyed.

The hospital said they will build a ‘Koala Ark’ for recovering koalas until they are well enough to breed and be returned to the wild.

You can donate to  their GoFundMe page here